Method of making labels



May 25, 1943. G. MURPHY METHOD OF MAKING LABELS Filed Jan. 23, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR -2 Sheets-Sheet 2 uh: our

G. MURPHY METHOD OF MAKING LABELS Filed Jan. 25, 1940 May 25, 1943.

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m wa mZDw Patented May 25, 1943 UNITED STATES PATENT. OFFICE 2,319,783 METHOD OF MAKING LABELS Gerald Murphy, Milwaukee, Wis., assignor to The United States Printing & Lithograph Company,

Cincinnati, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application January 23, 1940, Serial No. 315,225

8 Claims. (Cl. 95-5) graph through color filters four continuous tone My invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in preparing labels for commercial food products, and its object is to provide a process for printing such labels with the texts of one or more recipes or' formulas for the preparation of hot or cold dishes in which any particular food-item is an ingredient in association with portions or sections of pictures of the dishes prepared according to such recipe or recipes. The pictures preferably are reproduced in natural color efiects of the food-items, but may be in .black and white.

The embodiment of, my invention comprises a series of stepswhich may be understood by referring to the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic view capable of illustrating various factors in the process, and Figs. 2, 3, 4 and 5 are diagrammatic'views symbolizing the relations of recipes and their associated crop-outs of sections of pictures of prepared dishes in which an individual item is an ingredient in connection with usual advertising and display matter on labels identifying the goods and the canner or distributor thereof. Figs, 3, 4 and 5 are broken away for convenience of illustration.

In carrying out my invention a plurality of food-items are assembled together and arranged in any relation suitable for making a group photograph thereof. A typical lay-out of this character is indicated by Fig. l, which in one aspect graphically symbolizes the contents of a number of dishes of foods prepared according to recipes and ready to serve. Each group may include food-items of difierent kinds and varieties or it may be limited to a particular item andso embrace various dishes in each of which the key item is an ingredient. Assuming that the group is of the composite type, in Fig. 1 the symbols may be considered to indicate dishes of various food-items. Or assuming that the group is of the key type, in Fig. l the various symbols rep process negatives made on film or glass. This may be done by making from the color photocolor-separation negatives for the appropriate primary colors, and from these color negatives making four half-tone positives, one for each color, on the camera through the half-tone screen; and after these positives are corrected a film negative or preferably a glass negative is made for each color, thus making the final half-tone process negatives above mentioned. From these negatives I make photographic stripfilms of an unlimited number of sections or croppings in various sizes, shapes and designs to make up illustrations .of associated recipes for individual labels, and strip these croppings into position each in register with the text of a corresponding recipe or recipes on the individual label-assembly. The individual label-assembly is the final glass positive containing all elements of the finished label including the desired picture and its associated text composed on a suitable plate or holder. This glass positive is then used to make the final metal plates used on the printing press. For intaglio printing the labelassembly is made positive on glass, and for planegraph; or albumen printing the label-assembly is made negative on glass.

The label-assemblies for individual labels are prepared in any suitable manner to identify the corresponding food-item as the product of a particular canner or distributor, and to display his name and address, together with his trademark and usual advertising matter, such as a picture of the item in its natural state, and also with text for printing one or more recipes; for using the item'in preparing the dish or dishes described by the recipe or recipes. When the label-assemblies are prepared suitable portions of them adjacent their recipe-printing matter are stopped-out, and the cropped sections of the strip-films are stripped into registered position on the assemblies in association with the appropriate recipes. This is illustrated graphically in Figs. 2, 3, 4 and 5 which are typical of this step and in which cropped sections A, B, C,D, E, F and G, taken from the strip-film at the respective locations correspondingly lettered in small type in Fig, 1, this figure now being regarded as showing the lay-out on the film, are registered in position on the label-assemblies adjacent to the associated Recipesto illustrate the latter as indicated in Figs. 1-5. The contents of the various dishes are appropriately lined in the various figures to indicate form and color; and as shown in some figures the key item may be illustrated in its natural state on the label. ,1

More specifically stated, the label-assembly is prepared from the natural color photograph of the assembled dishes by making strip-films of the four colors and one extra of the color that shows the most outline, generally the light blue; this extra. strip-film is used for the key. Also four strip-films and one extra such strip-film are made of the entire label design which is to be reproduced. All these extra strip-films are made into a key positive by stripping all the items required to make up the particular label into their correct positions on a glass plate so that they read the wrong way or reversed. When this key positive has been prepared an exposure of it is made on a photographic dry plate which provides a key negative of the complete label with every,

item in its proper position. From this key negative four blue-prints are made on glass, one for each of the above-named colors. The colors are then stripped on the four blue-prints, using stripfilm prepared as above described to make the final glass positives which are then used to make intaglio lithographic press-plates used to print the labels.

To make albumen lithographic printing plates the positive is stripped on the blue-prints in the same way as for the intaglio lithographic plates with the exception that the strip film is stripped wrong side up so that this patched positive reads right. This also includes the key positive. From these stripped up positives a negative is made which is used for making albumen lithographic press-plates used to print the labels.

In both of these methods the label-assemblies are prepared with sections of the strip-film in association with the appropriate recipes.

By the present invention I am able to produce a label-assembly for an individual label at approximately one-tenth of what it would otherwise cost to show a pictorial illustration of one or more recipes in association therewith on such label. While each set of master plates may be used for a number of impressions the resulting illustrations of each particular item would be identical, and so not suitable for general use by packers and distributors as each prefers that the illustrations on its labels be distinctive and personalized. Hence the utility and. commercial value of each master plate set would be limited, and in fact its cost would be prohibitive. By my present process each picture taken from the master plates may be cropped or bodily cut-up into a large number of sections of difierent sizes, designs and shapes, each illustrating the same key goods in a. manner distinct from the others, and these sections or crops when reproduced on the respective labels'of different packers and distributors afford each of them a separate and personalized picture of his goods in association with any appropriate recipe to illustrate any dish it describes. Also, as the crops are relatively'smaller than the figures on the film from which they are taken they can in many instances be grouped with their associated recipes in less space on the label-assembly than would be occupied by reproducing the figure itself. Each label-assembly may carry a plurality of crop-outs, each of which may be reproduced on the'label in association with any appropriate recipe and illustrating the dish described by it. The same master plates may be used repeatedly for producing an unlimited number of films and a great variety and number of cropplngs of each picture, thereby affording mass production from a single set of plates, whether the latter is for a single food-item or for a plurality of such items, and these reproductions of food-products in their natural color, texture and general appearance afford distinctive and personalized labels for canners and distributors. My invention provides great flexibility in the use of pictures from the same master plates as a number of crop-outs may be made from the same figure or picture on a film and then stripped on the label-assembly either singly or in many combinations in registered association with the same or different recipes. Thus different canners or distributors may have the same recipe illustrated by difierent single crop-outs as in Fig. 2, or by any combinations of a plurality of such recipes illustrated by different crop-outs from the selected pictures on the film as in Figs. 3, 4 and 5. Furthermore, the crop-outs may be variously grouped and may be extended beyond the selected picture to include parts of adjacent pictures on the film of some item which though not a part of the associated recipe may be served with the food, such as a glass of tomato juice as in Fig. 5. From these facts it is obvious that my invention affords rapid production of personalized and illustrative labels at greatly reduced cost, and a more attractive display for the goods at the point of sale, and in association with the recipes aflords illustrated information about the goods. These are valuable advertising and sales factors which are provided by the present invention, and inure to the benefit of the wholesaler and retailer of the goods.

While I have referred herein only to food products of certain types it is to be understood that the scope and advantages of my invention extend to any and all items of food sold on the retail market in containers and capable of being prepared for consumption according to applicable recipes, or of being composed of enumerated ingredients or packaged in any stated order or arrangement.

I claim:

1. The method of making labels comprising the following steps: assembling a plurality of dishes of food products prepared according to recipes for said dishes; photographing said assembly; preparing a set of basic master-plates from said photograph; preparing a printing film from said plates; cropping-opt sections from figures on said film; registering said crop-outs into position in association with corresponding typematter on a label-assembly, and printing labels from said assembly. a

2. The method of making labels comprising the following steps: assembling a plurality of dishes of food products prepared according to recipes for said dishes; photographing said assembly; preparing a set of basic master-plates from said photograph; preparing a printing film from said plates; cropping-out different sections from the same figure on said film; registering said crop-outa'ihto positions on difierent labelplates with respect to an associated text thereon, and printing the texts and associated crop-outs on different labels.

3. The method of making labels comprising the following steps: assembling a plurality of dishes of food products prepared according to recipes for said dishes; photographing said assembly; preparing a set of basic master-plates from said photograph; preparing a printing film from said plates; cropping-out sections from a plurality of figures on said film; registering said crop-outs into position on an individual labelplate with respect to corresponding texts thereon, and printing the combined matter on individual labels.

4. The method set forth in claim 1 in which the ingredients of the dishes are prepared in their natural colors and the set of master-plates is prepared to reproduce the irgredients of the dishes in the same colors in which they appear therein.

5. The method set forth in claim 2 in which the ingredients of the dishes are prepared in their natural colors and the set of master-plates is prepared to reproduce the ingredients of the dishes in the same colors in which they appear therein.

6. The method set forth in claim 3 in which the ingredients of the dishes are prepared in their natural colors and the set of master-plates is prepared to reproduce the ingredients of the dishes in the same colors in which they appear therein.

7. The method of printing illustrated recipes on labels which consists in preparing a film with a printing impression capable of reproducing a picture of a dish of food products prepared according to a given recipe and in their natural colors; preparing a label-assembly with printin matter for said recipe and with a stopped-out portion adjacent said printing matter; croppingout a section of said impression of said film illustrating the chosen recipe and registering said section on said stopped-out portion of said assembly; and printing labels from said assembly.

8. The method of printing illustrated recipes on labels which consists in preparing a film with a plurality of contact printing impressions capable of reproducing pictures of dishes of food products prepared according to different recipes and in their natural colors; preparing labelassembly plates with printing matter for said recipes and with stopped-out portions associated with said printing matter; cropping-out sections of said impressions of said film illustrating the chosen recipes and registering said crop-outs on said stopped-put portions of said assembly in association with their corresponding recipes; and printing labels from said assembly.

GERALD MURPHY. 

